Fiscal analyst Mike Carlson is good with spreadsheets and baseball stats. He doesn’t believe in fate, true love, or fantasy. But then a fertility goddess whisks him away to another world. A promise has been broken, and if Mike is ever to return to California—and his comfortable if lonely life—he must complete a pilgrimage to the shrines of a death goddess.
A humiliating event convinces Mike to hire a guard to accompany him, and hunky Goran is handy enough with a sword, if a little too liberal with his ale. A man with no home and no family, Goran is deeper than he first appears. As Mike learns more about Goran, his disbelief wavers and his goals become less clear. Contending with feuding gods, the challenges of the journey, and his growing attraction to Goran, Mike faces a puzzle far harder to solve than simple rows of numbers.
William Lyon’s past forced him to become someone he isn’t. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby’s offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.
William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.
Readers love Kim Fielding
Astounding!
“...if you are looking for another sweet story from the very talented Kim Fielding, this could be just what you need.”
—My Fiction Nook
“I loved this book! It was quirky and the characters were interesting and fun... And the ending was so damn perfect! The happiest of happy endings, in my book.”
—Reviews by Jessewave
“I absolutely love it when Kim Fielding decides to go on yet another genre freestyling endeavour. I get chills when she does this.”
—On Top Down Under
Rattlesnake
“Rattlesnake is a fantastic read and… very well written.”
—Joyfully Jay
“This was… beautiful. Beautiful in the way that hurts. Beautiful in the way that heals. Beautiful in the way that is imperfect. Beautiful in the way that challenges you, treats you, surprises you, fulfills you.”
—Boys in our Books
“Kim Fielding is an amazing writer. She has a keen eye for human behavior, and she manages to find ways… to really dig deep through the layers and expose the person underneath in ways that are unique and sometimes startling.”
—The Blogger Girls
KIM FIELDING is very pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. Her books have won Rainbow Awards and span a variety of genres. She has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. She’ s a university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full time. She also dreams of having two perfectly behaved children, a husband who isn’ t obsessed with football, and a house that cleans itself. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.
Blogs: kfieldingwrites.com and
www.goodreads.com/author/show/4105707.Kim_Fielding/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites
E-mail: kim@kfieldingwrites.com Twitter: @KFieldingWrites
By Kim Fielding
Alaska
Animal Magnetism (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Astounding!
The Border
Brute
Don’t Try This at Home (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Grateful
A Great Miracle Happened There
Grown-up
Housekeeping
Love Can’t Conquer
Men of Steel (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Motel. Pool.
Night Shift
Pilgrimage
The Pillar
Phoenix
Rattlesnake
Saint Martin’s Day
Snow on the Roof (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Speechless • The Gig
Steamed Up (Dreamspinner Anthology)
The Tin Box
Venetian Masks
Violet’s Present
BONES
Good Bones
Buried Bones
The Gig
Bone Dry
GOTHIKA
Stitch (Multiple Author Anthology)
Bones (Multiple Author Anthology)
Claw (Multiple Author Anthology)
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Love Can’t Conquer
© 2016 Kim Fielding.
Cover Art
© 2016 Brooke Albrecht.
www.brookealbrechtstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
ISBN: 978-1-63477-320-1
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63477-321-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016901599
Published June 2016
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Blurb
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
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